TV news channel ANN7 has agreed to apologise "unreservedly" to former tourism minister Derek Hanekom for false and damaging allegations made about him during one of their programmes.

In a hearing at the Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa (BCCSA) on Wednesday, the television station's editor-in-chief Moegsien Williams and MultiChoice's head of regulatory compliance, Bruce Mkhize, said they had reached an agreement with Hanekom and would issue an apology on Friday and Saturday this week.

The BCCSA would issue a formal ruling at a later stage.

Hanekom had lodged a complaint with the BCCSA after claiming that a broadcast on August 11 contained false and defamatory content about him during a panel discussion on the outcome of the vote of no confidence in President Jacob Zuma.

One of the guests, Udo Froese, claimed that President Nelson Mandela had, in 1996, said that Hanekom was an apartheid agent.

ANN7 admitted that the allegations were false.

Hanekom's wife, Trish, who was present at the hearing, said ANN7 should retract the statements made on the programme and on social media.